Early February 2010 I've been getting grief from my big brother for not updating this website. So here it is.  I got all the insulation finished last autumn. I am still playing with bits on the engine. I have to machine an engine pulley to match the alternator pulley. The Alternator supplier sent me a 6 groove pulley but although it has 6 grooves, as does the crankshaft pulley it doesn't have the same size grooves, so I have bought a large square lump of aluminium about 35mm thick and as soon as those round tuits arrive I'll start machining it! I finally got the cooling system filled up last October and have apparently fixed all the leaks. I've been saving bottles of water from our dehumidifier to fill the cooling system. I bought 18 litres of anti-freeze and added this to about 30 litres of distilled (dehumidifier) water, gave it a good stir and poured it in. There is still an annoying oil leak on the gearbox. I haven't done anything to it for a while though. Its very cold to work on the cold metal engine at the moment. I did buy some sheets of plywood late last year and have covered the lower area of the boat, below the gunnels. I will be starting to fit plumbing and gas supplies soon. I was elected Commodore of our local Canal Club last November. They told me - Its easy- just chair the meetings - that's about it. Ha Ha. I haven't so much as picked up a screwdriver at the boat for about a month. I was a bit off colour one weekend. And this is my busy time of year. But still.......??? The Governments Boiler Scrappage Scheme has begun to kick in too. There is a grant available for owners of really old boilers to upgrade. So I have been getting lots of enquiries for estimates. Just as well really as BW licence is due again soon. If I can remember how to do it I'll post a couple of photos soon. 21st February 2010 Well - here's a proper, good news update. I have fixed the gearbox leak. I blame poor eyesight for it taking so long. I asked Dan Hollands to come down and take a look. He's the boat engineer who works at Uxbridge Wharf. I explained the problem to him and we stripped off the drive coupling from the gearbox. The oil was being pushed up the splines on the inside of this coupling. He is a bit younger than me and when he put his head down level with the end of the gearbox, he could actually focus on what was in there . I, on the other hand couldn't get my head back far enough to focus because of the bulkhead. He said he thought the coupling should make a good seal inside and I suggested maybe filling it all with silicone mastic. He agreed that may be a good solution.  So after he'd left I cleaned all the oil off the coupling, nut, spacer and shaft with parafin. It was then I noticed a hole in the end of the shaft for a split pin. "Aha! thought I. I've never seen that hole before" I left the coupling off and just screwed the nut on. It only went on about 2/3 of the thread. The problem was that the thread was mashed on the nut. When I'd cleaned out the thread.it screwed in about 3/16th" further. I think the nut is not original because I can only see half the split-pin hole but then I remembered that there had been a loop of wire round this nut when I first took the gearbox apart. I couldn't see the purpose of it at the time but now realize it must have been because the spilt-pin hole was not accessible. Maybe later I'll take a bit off this nut on the lathe. This then made a good oil seal with the shoulder in the shaft. Problem solved!

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